Wallets/yoco
Yoco
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Overview
Yoco is South Africa's largest SME POS + payment + business-funding fintech, founded 2015 [1, 2, za-cro]. Yoco processes US$ billions annually for 300,000+ small businesses in South Africa.
Funding scale [3]: Yoco has raised R1.7+ billion total funding + $170M from leading institutional investors — TPG + Dragoneer + Partech + Velocity + Quona + Raba + 4DX + many more. Yoco's Series C funding round worth R1.23 billion is the largest single investment ever raised by a South African payments company + one of the largest in Africa.
2025 strategic positioning [4]: Yoco's transitioning from card machines to a bigger digital toolkit for South African SMEs — payments + funding + commerce tools.
Distinctive Yoco performance metric: Merchants using Yoco POS grow revenue up to 500% more than those who only accept simple card payments [1]. Yoco data: revenue increases between 32-41% for POS customers.
History
2015 — Yoco founded [2] in South Africa.
2018-2024 — Mass SA SME adoption [1]: 200K+ → 300K+ businesses.
2021-2024 — Major fundraising [3]: R1.23B Series C (largest SA payments fund-raise ever); R1.7B+ cumulative.
2025 — Strategic shift from card machines to bigger digital toolkit [4].
Ownership & operator
Operating entity: Yoco Technologies (Pty) Ltd.
Major investors: TPG + Dragoneer + Partech + Velocity + Quona + Raba + 4DX + many more.
Co-founders: Katlego Maphai (CEO) + Lungisa Matshoba (CTO) + Carl Wazen + Bradley Wattrus.
Regulator: SARB (South African Reserve Bank).
Technical integration
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Channels | Yoco POS card reader (Yoco Neo + Yoco Khumo + Yoco Go) + merchant mobile app + Yoco Online (checkout) |
| Identifiers | Card number (merchant-side processing) |
| Customer type | SA SME (small + medium businesses) |
| Funding | Yoco Capital — SME business loans/cash advances |
| 2025+ expansion | Bigger digital toolkit: payments + funding + commerce tools |
Users & growth
2025 baseline [1]:
- SA businesses served: 300,000+
- Annual processing: US$ billions
- Revenue impact: POS customers grow 32-41% (general); 500% more for full-POS adopters vs simple-card-only
- Cumulative funding: R1.7B+ ($170M from international institutional investors)
Use cases
SA SME card-payment acceptance (Yoco Neo + Khumo + Go POS readers); merchant mobile app; online checkout (Yoco Online); Yoco Capital SME business funding / cash advances; growth-analytics for SMEs.
Implementations & partners
Operator: Yoco Technologies (Pty) Ltd.
Major institutional investors: TPG, Dragoneer, Partech, Velocity, Quona, Raba, 4DX.
Major SA SME-payment competitors: iKhokha (SA SME POS rival), PayFast, Peach Payments (online-payment gateway), traditional SA banks SME divisions (Standard Bank, Nedbank, ABSA, FNB) merchant-acquiring.
Regulator: SARB.
Fun facts
- Founded 2015 as SA's SME POS-payment fintech.
- 300,000+ SA businesses served (US$ billions annual processing).
- R1.23B Series C = largest single investment ever raised by SA payments company.
- R1.7B+ cumulative funding + $170M from TPG + Dragoneer + Partech + Quona + 4DX + others.
- 500% revenue uplift for full-Yoco-POS adopters vs simple-card-only.
- Yoco Neo + Khumo + Go card reader line.
- 2025 strategic shift — from card machines to bigger digital toolkit.
Comparison
| Feature | Yoco | iKhokha (SA SME rival) | [[square]] (US analogous SME POS) | [[stripe]] (global analogous developer-first) | [[hala]] (Saudi SME comparable) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Yoco (TPG + Dragoneer + Partech + Quona + 4DX backed) | iKhokha | Block Inc. (NYSE: SQ) | Stripe Inc. | Hala (TPG + Sanabil-backed) |
| Type | SA #1 SME POS + payment + funding | SA SME POS rival | US/global SME POS + Cash App | Global online checkout + infra | Saudi SME comprehensive infra |
| Country | South Africa | South Africa | Global | Global | Saudi + UAE |
| Customers | 300K+ SA businesses | Major SA | Millions SMEs global | B2B (devs + SMB + enterprise) | 140K SMEs |
| Funding distinctive | R1.23B Series C = largest SA payments raise ever | Major SA | NYSE-listed | Most-valuable private fintech | Sep 2025 $157M Series B (TPG + Sanabil) |
| 2025+ strategy | Card machines → bigger digital toolkit | SA SME POS | Block ecosystem | Stripe Atlas + infra | Saudi SME Stripe-for-MENA |
Status
Active, SA's #1 SME POS-payment + funding fintech [1, 3]:
- Yoco Technologies (Pty) Ltd since 2015.
- 300K+ SA businesses + US$ billions annual processing.
- R1.7B+ cumulative funding (largest SA payments fund-raise R1.23B Series C).
- 2025 strategic shift to bigger SME digital toolkit.
- SARB-regulated.
Sources
- 1 Unlocking SA SME growth — Yoco
- 2 Yoco — Wikipedia
- 3 Yoco — Crunchbase
- 4 Yoco card machines → digital toolkit — Digital Street SA
- za-cro In-corpus:
reports/countries/ZA-south-africa.md
Source
Biography extracted from yoco.md. See matrix.md for standards-support matrix if present.